From Middle Earth to Outer Space: The Phoenix Foundation - "Hitchcock"

One more lucky find. It was posted on the channel presenting short films, which it is indeed. But at the same time this is a video to a song by a New Zealandish band The Phoenix Foundation. I've never heard of them, but judging from this song, this is a mistake I have to correct as soon as possible. This is a truly brilliant video, combining very original animation with perfectly corresponding music. It was directed (or in this case rather "made") by Reuben Sutherland, a visual artist specialising in mixing up live action and animation. And the music is also original. I guess it could be labeled "post rock", but it wouldn't do justice to this great piece. This is a combination of atmospheric instrumental rock fueled by prominent guitars with electronic sounds straight out of Jean-Michel Jarre's most "cosmic" tunes. The result is something I would call "space rock". OK, enough talkingwriting. I have to book a ticket for a nightflight to Venus.

The Phoenix Foundation - "Hitchcock"

A higher quality version can be found here.

Karmuazine - "Between the Lines"

Classy trip-hop offering (8/10) The new magic stories with a unique atmosphere of colorful Karmuazine's music. This a classy trip-hop offering. Great female vocals, fine English accent (at least from my non-native perspective), professional production, catchy melodies, dreamy atmosphere. Highly recommended for fans of trip-hop or simply good pop music. The album is available for free under CC licenses on Jamendo. You can also buy a lossless FLAC version on Bandcamp. This release is copyrighted. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by buying the full album or single tracks directly from the artist on Bandcamp - for as low as $ 0.7 per track. [Facebook] | [SoundCloud] (2 tracks)

Pan:core - "Memories (2001 - 2005)"

Piano + electronica + beautiful melodies (9/10) auf diesem album habe ich eine auswahl an tracks zusammengestellt, die ich im laufe der letzten jahre gemacht habe. jeder einzelne von ihnen hat für mich eine persönliche bedeutung. die klangqualität ist eher mittelmäszig und das mixing ist wirklich nicht so gut - und dennoch; ich mag es sehr. vielleicht kann euch das eine oder andere stück berühren. More classical album than other Pan:core's recordings. It mostly comprises of simple but beautiful melodies played on piano / keyboard with electronic background. A very melancholic album. And it includes another stunning electronic cover of a classical tune - this time a piece from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (17 - spaetsommer). Pan:core's covers are masterpieces. As to the rest of the album, it is very good, but I prefer his more electronic and experimental side, as on No Way To Win. He's a true master of this genre. It becomes clear after listening this album to the end, because the last track is completely different from the rest - it's not a simple piano tune, but hard electronic experimental madness. ;-) I instantly felt sorry that not all 18 tracks were in this style. And a final remark - I like both sides of Pan:core - simple piano pieces and experimental electronic madness, so I don't mind mixing them on one album. But I'm afraid that for some listeners, who like only straightforward music, the ending of this album would be unbearable and could ruin all the fun they had from listening to this record.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [mirror @ archive.org] [Artist's website]

Massia, Thierry de - "Shift"

Almost like Beethoven... (6/10) New age très mélodique, les différents morceaux sont tour à tour torturés, mélancoliques, doux ou apaisants. Casque sur les oreilles, yeux fermés, la musique invite à la rêverie. I have mixed feelings after listening to this album. Thierry de Massia is definitely a talented composer. In fact he even can be compared to Beethoven. Like his famous predecessor, he's talented but he must be completely deaf. These cheap synthetic sounds imitate real instruments so poorly that ugliness of the sound kills any fun one could have from listening to nice melodies. In my opinion, Mr. de Massia should limit himself to composing only and give his score to a real band or to a person who is properly equipped and knows how to use synthesizers. As for the tunes, some tracks bear classical influences ("Un signe", "Tales of mister frog", "Shift"). They have very simple melodies, as if composed for children, but could be quite nice if not for those synthetic sounds. In their current form they are practically unlistenable. The other half of songs sounds like transferred directly from the '80s ("La chanson de Julie", "RailRoad", "Jet Set"), straight from the recording session of Jean Michel Jarre. So these tracks are extremely unoriginal, but on the other hand, imitation is almost perfect. In fact "RailRoad" could be advertised as unpublished Jarre's tune from the '80s and I think everybody would believe it. And in these electronic tunes the artist does not try to imitate the classical orchestra and therefore ugly synthetic sounds can be tolerated (in fact they even give this "old '80s" feeling that can be treated as done on purpose). So this part of the album is quite nice if one is not bothered with lack of originality. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS If you like this album and you can afford it, consider supporting the artist by making a donation on this page - use the button "Donate" in the upper left corner.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [mirror @ archive.org] [Twitter]

Shattering Planet - "Depths Of My Mind, the" [SP]

WANTED: Better samples (5/10) Shattering Planet is my alias for my experimental music. I hope you find it to be enjoyable. If you do enjoy any of my song or albums and you have a Jamendo account I would greatly appreciate reviewing any of my albums as well as becoming my fan so you get notified of any new music I release. Also remember: You can use any of my music on YouTube videos as long as it isn’t commercial, but please give my band credit for the song. Thanks! THIS SONG IS IN LOW DEFINITION! AN HD VERSION CAN BE FOUND AT http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/105386. This was my first song I ever wrote and published. I hope you enjoy it! The melody is much too simple for my liking, but that's the matter of taste. On a more objective note, the quality of samples is terrible. Particularly a flute sounds totally artificial and unnatural. However, if it is your first composition, it is not bad at all. Many popular artists started from much lower level. Work hard and who knows?

Royalty Free Music - Stock Music Library | Jamendo PRO

Plaisance, C. & Doucet, S. - "Tranquility: Sacred Forest" (1998)

SACRED FOREST is perfect for Tai Chi, massage and meditation. The CD is part of the audio series "Sounds of Nature" and "Tranquility" combining the state-of-the-art binaural recordings of Chuck Plaisance with Suzanne Doucet's music. Seven of their titles made it into the top ten environmental charts at Amazon.com, including being #1 and #2 for over two years.Suzanne doucet's 30 years in the world of New Age music have provided her with incomparable knowledge and experience. [Read more --->] Warning! Do not buy this album through Amazon or iTunes, because if you buy it there, almost all the money will go to the recording industry mafia and will be used later for committing crimes such as unlawful harassment of fans and bribing authorities to implement changes in law, which would infringe basic human rights. If you want to pay the artist for this work, buy their music on CDBaby. They don't have this album there, but money is money, isn't it? You know what to do, right? Fuck Amazon & iTunes. Support independent music and channels of distribution that actually care for their artists, like CDBaby does. Tracklist: 01. Tranquility: Sacred Forest [Suzanne Doucet's website]

PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.5.1RC4 build 1.5.1.5
Copyright (c) 2008-2010 y-soft. All rights reserved
http://y-soft.org

ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved.


FILE: 01-VA-~1.FLA
  Size: 308069125 Hash: E2C78E04FD44D3D73BE5FDB33B93943E Accuracy: -m0
  Conclusion: CDDA 100%
  Signature: A6EEF898745EB8FBE6F5E9CDFC72A2D81B149621

Interested? Ask Uncle Google the magic question:

VA-Tranquility Sacred Forest-(CRG-1118)-CD-FLAC-1998-EMG site:fileflac.com

Van Syla - "Death of a Star, the"

Wow! There are so many musically deaf people around here... (1/10) A very weak attempt at electronic piano ambient. The tunes are primitive (with a catastrophic climax in the horrendous title track). They could maybe work as a soundtrack for Teletubbies or as background music in a hotel's elevator, but that's all. Then we have orchestration. The artist totally loses his grip when it comes to combining more tracks in one piece (see "The Death of a Star" again). Particular instruments do not form a cohesive whole, but rather fight with each other for supremacy. Pure piano pieces with only subtle synthesizer background are better (see "Passing Passion", the best on this album - I'd give it something like 5/10 rating). And finally, the biggest crime of Van Syla - use of primitive cheap keyboard with terrible plastic sound (or lousy samples on computer). It renders this album almost unlistenable for someone with even traces of musical hearing. There's nothing wrong with plastic sound, where it fits - where the artist deliberately goes for synthetic sound (see the whole 8bit genre, for example). But in such Oldfield-like music that Van Syla tries to record it does not fit at all. All these background effects that accompany piano are supposed to add space and atmosphere to the main piano melody. To achieve this they would have to sound natural. You cannot substitute a plastic bucket for a tubular bell, just because it is hollow. And you cannot substitute $20 Casio keyboard for real instruments, nature sounds and field recordings. It can be done with synthetic sounds, but it is really really difficult. It requires good equipment and high skills. Van Syla lacks at least one of them. Of course, piano on this album is probably also synthetic, but it sounds better (as usual). I don't know the reason - either piano is easier to mimic or keyboard makers have more experience, but they usually more or less succeed even in cheap equipment. The effect is almost never as atrocious as with other instruments or sounds. But maybe I am insane? As you can easily see this album is highly praised by the masses. So, can they all be wrong??? Well, it seems for many people the simple melody is everything they need (and the simpler and more primitive the better). These tunes could be written by a talented graduate of a two-week correspondence harmony course (or - these days - by a good computer program). That's OK with me, even if I don't dig it. Many genres feature primitive melodies (check out eurodance, for example) and may still be fun, if done properly. But festering this particular genre with cheap synthetic sounds is a crime (like it would be with classical or early music). That is something I cannot understand or accept. So, to summarize, if your favorite musical genre is nursery rhyme and you think you wouldn't notice if Mike Oldfield replaced tubular bells with steel barrels on his debut album – Van Syla is waiting for you with plenty of beautiful music. If not – for Mozart's sake, stay away! The album has been released on Jamendo and is available for downloading in mp3 or ogg format.